Microsoft® continuously improves the Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008 operating systems by providing ongoing updates while working with software and hardware vendors to help them deliver improved compatibility, reliability, and performance. These updates are provided to customers by Microsoft's hardware and software partners, as well as directly from Microsoft in the form of regularly distributed updates delivered via Windows Update. Updates to Windows are also delivered directly to some affected customers and preinstalled by PC manufacturers.
SP2 is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, which will be thoroughly tested by Microsoft and by industry partners and customers during the RC cycle, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
This document describes the notable changes in the Beta release of SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. For a complete list of all the changes in SP2, see Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2 Note that many of the updates listed are already publically available and have been released via the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update.
Organizations do not need to wait for SP2 to deploy Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008; we encourage them to begin their Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 evaluation and deployment now.Setup prerequisites

Users updating through Windows Update/WSUS must install an update to the servicing stack (described in knowledge base article 955430) that handles installation and removal of software updates, language packs, and optional Windows features. This update is necessary to successfully install and uninstall the service pack; it also improves the performance and reliability of the service pack installation. This update may require a reboot and is part of the standalone update package. It will be offered as a separate package on Windows Update. Users installing SP2 in standalone format will have this update built-in.

Service Pack 2 size

In order to make the improvements detailed in this document, individual files and components have been updated. Also, the language-neutral design of Windows necessitates that the Service Pack be able to update any possible combination of the basic languages supported by Windows Vista with a single installer, so language files for the 36 basic languages are included in the standalone installer.
These features result in a large stand-alone package, which is the delivery vehicle typically used by system administrators. However, most home and small business users will receive SP2 through Windows Update, which utilizes an efficient transfer mechanism to download only the actual bytes that are changed, resulting in an approximately 43 megabyte (MB) download. This is similar in size to many common software and driver updates that are delivered by other software vendors over the Internet, and therefore should not cause issues for most customers.

Thanks to the rich instrumentation capability of Windows operating systems, we are able to understand the types of issues that our customers experience while respecting their personal information and privacy preferences. We use this information to focus improvements in Windows, but we also share this information with our software vendor partners to help improve the reliability and compatibility of non-Microsoft applications. For example, in SP2, Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm, now work with POP3 e-mail accounts.
Our goal for SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is that applications that are written using public APIs and that run on the Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 operating systems will continue to work as designed.
Microsoft has already released several application compatibility updates which allow more applications to work seamlessly for the end user. These appear in SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, but they are also available through Windows Update. SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 contains additional application compatibility fixes for individual applications.
For more information about previously released compatibility updates, refer to article 947562 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128900). Hardware ecosystem support and enhancements

SP2 adds support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies, which adds the ID and vendor strings for the new VIA 64-bit CPU.

SP2 integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology.

SP2 includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar for improved performance and responsiveness.

SP2 includes the ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.

Operating system experience updates

SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0, which builds on Microsoft's search technology with improved indexing and search relevance. It also helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed email messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer. The search engine in Windows Search 4.0 is a Microsoft Windows® service that is also used by programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007. Autotuning Diagnostics in SP2 now interprets current network conditions when implementing Windows scaling. This feature includes full netsh support.

SP2 improves Windows Media Center (WMC) in the area of content protection for TV.

SP2 adds a registry key that enables modification of the maximum number of open TCP connections to increase application compatibility.

Enterprise improvements

SP2 provides the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008, including one free daughter OS with Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and an unlimited number of free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

SP2 also includes a Service Pack Clean-up tool (Compcln.exe) which helps recover hard disk space by permanently deleting previous versions of files (RTM and SP1) that are being serviced by SP2. The Service Pack Clean-up tool can also be run offline while creating slipstream images to reduce the size of the image.Conclusion

SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 represents Microsoft's continuing commitment to quality. While most updates contained in SP2 are available as individual downloads, the roll-up convenience of SP2 is a major benefit for administrators. This functionality coupled with new advanced deployment features, such as the single installer and the pre-installation analyzer, means SP2 continues to provide ongoing improvements that our customers have grown to expect from Microsoft. For more detail on SP2's contents, see Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista SP2 Beta.